


petals as white as bone

by shadowcat500



Series: Plaguetober 2020 [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, Plague Doctors, Plaguetober 2020, also theft, and grabs some flowers for his bf while hes there, committing trespassing in the middle of a plague outbreak to get bf flowers, pov character breaks into palace gardens for medical supplies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:47:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26753062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowcat500/pseuds/shadowcat500
Summary: Crocus does some trespassing in the name of medicinal herbs.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: Plaguetober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948417
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	petals as white as bone

**Author's Note:**

> 03/10 Roses

The palace gardens are quiet, nowadays.

Now, that’s not saying they weren’t quiet before the outbreak, just that they seem even more so. Before, even in the middle of the carefully-trimmed hedges and perfect roses you could hear the faintest whisper of noise from the streets around, carts rattling, people yelling and chattering, the occasional sound of a blast of magic when a mage got a little too rowdy, the usual. But now? Silence. Everyone’s hiding inside, terrified of the blight that haunts the streets better than any spectre of death.

Let no one say Crocus is a coward, then, prowling the closed walks of the royal gardens. 

He didn’t exactly _plan_ to end up here, but no florist was open, the apothecaries were out of stock, the parks were picked clean and the trees dotting the pavement were leafless in the late autumn chill. Then he saw the bare stone wall and made his choice.

It’s far from his worst impulse decision (the worst ones tend to centre more around overdosing poisons), if he’s honest. The garden must be enchanted, the plants bloom bright as ever, flowers of every shade still as fresh as the first day he came he when he was yet to even become an apprentice doctor, and thinking about it now he should really have been more suspicious of tulips blooming in early February. No matter, he has work to do. 

First, and most importantly, lavender. The little purple buds smell strong enough to keep any bug out, and supposedly the smell is soothing. A good choice both for patient and doctor. 

He finds them in a corner on one of the walks, fresh as any other bloom here. It takes a knife to cut a handful, his gloves too lose to get a solid grip on the tough little stalks and he tucks them away in a pocket before he has to worry about being seen by any guard choosing to spend their break in the gardens. (Ha, _guard_ -ens.)

Mint is already growing with the vegetables back home, so he doesn’t need to grab it. Why is it on the list again?

And the specifics of the shopping list are done! (He is just _flying_ through these!) Now all that’s left is the classic miscellaneous, shorthand for “anything you can find”.

He sweeps the area for anything usable, both for smell and cure. Marigold, to cure the plague-rash. Jasmine and gardenia, for the smell. Ginger, for vomiting and fever. Hawthorn and valerian, to slow the heart. 

On the way back, he notices the palace’s prize roses, snaking up the wall. One of the grafted bases appears to be making a comeback in the gardeners’ absence, wild rose mixing with bred. It takes him a long few seconds to realise what impulse he’s shoving down, but when he does it shoves at his brain like a bear against a sapling. _You know who’d love a rose or ten? Nendril._ it seems to say. _It’s not like anyone’s around to notice. You can take some._ He really shouldn’t: the one thing worse than treating patients through a plague is treating patients through a plague while running from the law over some flowers. Not- not that Crocus would know.

So he takes the flowers. He glances round for guards (still haven’t seen any—are they striking till the plague’s done?) then lunges forward, cutting knife out, and slices off half-a-dozen of the best he sees. Red, yellow, pink. There’s some blue and green close to a door, but he’s not planning on pushing his luck much further, at least not today. 

***

“I’m home!”

Nendril glances up from his journal, noting down the days observations. Still nothing of use besides new potential symptoms—sure everyone gets the fever, rash and vomiting, and cramps are extremely common, but some patients are complaining of coughing and headaches, and another is saying that raspberry leaf tea was helping her before it stopped working and she came to them. 

Crocus stands in the doorway, the lenses of his mask reflecting the daylight streaming through the treating-room window, bag of herbs and flowers hanging full in his leather-gloved hands. 

“What did you find? Was anyone open?”

“Well, uh, no,” he sets the bag on the table, “but I found some stuff anyway!” Out of the bag come a pouch of clove flowers, another of lavender, an entire ginger plant, some hawthorn, some valerian, marigold flowers, gardenia and jasmine blossoms, and lastly, some suspiciously well-kept roses. 

Damn this wonderful man. “How much did you steal?”

“It’s not like anyone was using it! And I remembered roses were your favourite so I grabbed some too!”

“ _Where_ did you steal it from?”

“…The palace gardens.”

“The _palace_ -?!” He sighs and presses a thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. “If you get arrested because you stole some roses for me, I’m blaming it on you.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything else.” The sides of the mask rise slightly in what Nendril has come to recognise as a smile. “We should probably put these in some water.”

“We probably should.”

**Author's Note:**

> Now with [ art](https://you-have-been-seen.tumblr.com/post/631091972999888896/petals-as-white-as-bone-an-ao3-original) by the wonderful and talented @you-have-been-seen!
> 
> Check out my [ tumblr](https://existentialcrisisetcetera.tumblr.com/tagged/zach%20writes)!
> 
> Comments and kudos appreciated!


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